Villa Familia

Location

Villa Familia is located on Cape Matapalo at the very tip of the Osa Peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  At a latitude of only eight degrees above the Equator, Matapalo has a tropical wet climate.  The dry season extends from mid-December through late April, and the rainy season is from May through mid-December.  Temperatures range from 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit year round, and sunshine may be expected even in the rainy season, at least from May through mid-September.  October is the wettest time of the year and except for those that like rain is perhaps the least desireable month of the year to consider a visit.

The Osa Peninsula has long been considered Costa Rica's final frontier.  It is a remote peninsula that until this year did not have a paved road to connect it with the mainland.  Boasting extensive primary rain forest coverage and the location of the nation's largest National Park, Corcovado National Park, the Osa Peninsula plays host to the nation's largest concentration of wild animals with a biodiversity widely quoted by wildlife biologists as being second in the world only to tropical rain forest environments in parts of Borneo and New Guinea.

The Osa Peninsula was the site of a gold rush in the 1980's and the peninsula retains a strong cultural impact from a history intimately linked with the precious metal.  Commercial mining has been banned since the mid-nineties, and the primary economic mainstay of the peninsula is tourism.  Agriculture and ranching are also important to the peninsular economy, with rice and oil palm being the primary agricultural products.

Many guests prefer to reach Puerto Jimenez by air, and indeed the regional tourism hub is served during the dry season by ten commercial flights per day originating in San Jose on both Natureair and Sansa carriers.  Puerto Jimenez is also home to Alfa Romeo Aero Taxi which regional air charter services including charters back and forth to the capital.  The town is served by regular daily bus service from San Jose as well as shuttle bus service.  Solid Car Rental is the only Costa Rican car rental agency with offices in Puerto Jimenez (as well as San Jose), and SUVs can be rented from either of these offices as well as others distributed throughout the Southern Zone.  Finally, there are six speed boats a day that provide collective water taxi service to and from Golfito and one slow boat.

For more information on the peninsula, the interested reader may wish to browse www.soldeosa.com and in particular the Osa Directory contained there.